OTS 162: A Practical Guide to Building a Budget-Friendly OT Toolbox
- Jayson Davies
- Nov 11, 2024
- 45 min read
Updated: Dec 18, 2024
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Welcome to the show notes for Episode 162 of the OT Schoolhouse Podcast.
Join Jayson and Amanda Gibbs as they discuss building a school-based OT toolbox. Together, they dive into tools and resources—like the interactive Osmo, 'Tools to Grow,' goodwill, and more—that make therapy sessions both effective and budget-friendly. Amanda shares her journey from navigating limited resources as a new grad to finding creative solutions that enhance her practice. Don’t miss this episode full of insights and practical tips to elevate your OT practice on a budget!
Listen now to learn the following objectives:
Learners will identify cost-effective tools and resources for supporting skill development in school-based occupational therapy.
Learners will understand district budgeting and resource processes to advocate for necessary occupational therapy materials, including recognizing key contacts for resource support in schools with limited budgets.
Learners will identify tools and strategies for implementing a multisensory learning approach.
Guests Bio
Amanda Gibbs is a School-based Occupational Therapist that currently practices in Virginia working with ages 2 to 22. She is certified as an Autism Spectrum Disorder Clinical Specialist and is Tier 1 certified in the Size Matters Handwriting Program. When she is not working in the school system, her passion lies in creating content on instagram @ot.enlightenment. It has since grown to be a platform to provide mentorship to students, guest speakers for OT programs across the US, provide guidance for new graduates, provide resources on school-based OT information, treatment ideas, advocacy, and promotion of learning opportunities to become confident and competent occupational therapy practitioners.
Quotes
“If there are any new grads or therapists that are going into the space and you find you don't have much support, then please reach out to where that support is and find out what the budget is, and where we fit within that, and get that conversation going to to really decrease not only the burden on yourself, but future therapists as well”
- Amanda Gibbs, OTR/L, ASDCS
“So for my elementary schools and another tip is to make it easier for yourself is to, again, stretch that same activity, but adapt it in so many different ways depending on the kid and the skills that you're working on.”
-Amanda Gibbs, OTR/L, ASDCS
“I find that there are so many free resources out there that I have found from so many different people that, sometimes I feel there's an abundance of information, which is wonderful, but kind of overwhelming.”
-Amanda Gibbs, OTR/L, ASDCS
“There's just so many resources online that you can learn a lot about something, before ever hitting the buy button or going to Target.
-Jayson Davies, M.A., OTR/L
Resources
👉Osmo
Episode Transcript
Expand to view the full episode transcript.
Jayson Davies
Hey, OTPs, welcome to episode 162 of the OT school house podcast. I'm your host, Jayson Davies, and I'm thrilled to be joining you on your drive, your walk, maybe your gym sesh or whatever other meaningful occupation you are currently participating in right now. Thanks for tuning in. I appreciate it now. I want to kick off this episode by asking you to picture this. You've just landed your first job, or maybe not your first job as a school based ot practitioner. You're eager, you're passionate, and you're ready to make a difference. But then reality hits and you quickly realize you have absolutely zero therapy tools to actually, you know, provide therapy with an hour later, you've got a full shopping cart on Amazon, but just as you're about to hit purchase, that pesky frontal lobe of yours reminds you that your bank account balance is close to nil. You've been there right scrolling through websites, streaming of all the activities you could implement, only to watch your budget woes bring you back down to earth. Now I don't know about you, but I would even add items to my quote, unquote, does the Dollar Tree have these items in hopes that I could find something similar, yet maybe a cheaper knockoff of a tool I absolutely wanted. It's a familiar struggle for many of us, especially those of you starting out in your first ot job. We all know that supplying our OT toolbox with essential tools is important. I mean, we even talk about it in OT school, but how do we do that on a new grad salary, or even a seventh year salary with loans and a mortgage? It's frustrating, and it can absolutely make you question whether you're equipped to provide the services your students deserve. But here's the good news on today's episode, we are set to uncover some brilliant tips of building a cost, efficient and well rounded ot toolbox without breaking the bank. I'm thrilled to introduce Amanda Gibbs, a dedicated, school based occupational therapist who has navigated these very hurdles and created the OT enlightenment Instagram page to help show how she does it, Amanda is here to share her practical strategies and top recommendations for versatile, budget friendly tools, drawing from her experiences of stretching a modest $200 stipend to successfully leveraging district support and today, she'll guide you through maximizing your resources and ensuring that you have the tools you need to be an effective ot practitioner. So grab your ot shopping list and a pencil as we welcome Amanda Gibbs to the OT school house podcast to share her best practical advice on assembling an effective therapy toolbox on a new grad budget.
Amanda Gibbs
Hello and welcome to the OT schoolhouse podcast, your source for school based occupational therapy tips, interviews and professional development. Now to get the conversation started, here is your host, Jayson Davies class is officially in session.
Jayson Davies
Amanda, welcome to the OT school house podcast. How you doing today?
Amanda Gibbs
I am good. How are you Jayson?
Jayson Davies
Doing very well. Thank you so much for joining us. Done a few collaborations recently, and I'm really appreciating it. And of course, I just have to point out your Instagram enlightenment ot like I love it. It's awesome. You're doing wonderful work over there. Thank you so much for putting all that together. I know many, many ot practitioners are just loving everything you're doing over there.
Amanda Gibbs
Thank you. It's definitely a passion project, and it's become much more than I ever really thought it would be. But here we are, and we're keep on going with it. So yeah, I'm excited to be here.
Jayson Davies
Awesome. Well, thank you, and let's kind of dive right into it. I think the first question is always a fun one, and that is just kind of, I'd love to hear how you landed into school based occupational therapy, and you kind of want to tag on to that when the whole Instagram and social media things kind of started to tack on as well.
Amanda Gibbs
Well, I will be honest, I had no idea OTs were in the school system up until probably my last semester of graduate school an OT school. I found out about OT. I'll kind of backtrack a little bit, but even my junior year of college, I had planned to be a psychologist my whole life. So whole mental health world, I was, you know, involved in that. And then I was like, Hey, I wonder if there's a profession that addresses all of these wonderful things that we know OTs address. And it just so happened that at the time I was discovering OT, you know, a few personal involvements of my family came about. And so I had a brother in law who had a traumatic brain injury, and so I learned about OTs and the Brain Injury Unit, and then I researched that, and I came about OT, and I started observing, funny enough, my pop up at the time, as I was applying to OT school was getting home health OT, and he was living with me, and then I was also babysitting. And I was babysitting individuals that are autistic. You know, of different age ranges while I was in college. So I found out about ot went to OT school, and then not until my junior or, sorry, not junior year, but end of school that I finally did a field work in school based and I have not looked back since.
Jayson Davies
That's awesome. Yeah. I mean, I had no idea OTs were in schools either, until, probably even, yeah, during college. Like, I always thought that I was going to go into a clinical type of realm. That's kind of where a lot of my field work experience was. A lot of my volunteer hours for ot were there as well. And so, yeah, again, I didn't think that I would end up there. And I think you and I kind of both started down the same route. I believe you started in the contracting world first, right? In schools, I did, Yep, yeah. So how did that experience go?
Amanda Gibbs
So my very first year as an OT, I started out as a contractor. I got the job a few months after passing the NBC OT. I actually started out part time, three days a week, and then I was doing PRN outpatient pediatrics the other day, once a week. Yeah, and I found that that was actually tough just juggling two different settings as a new grad. I thought I was, I guess, invincible as a new grad, and thought it'd be easy, but it to me, it wasn't. And at that time, they really needed full time support, and I found that I gravitated towards school based better. It came more easy to me, and I was kind of all in so I jumped and took the full time position in a very rural area of Virginia. It was kind of a small team of us, just four or five OTs, no cotas, and I was kind of on my own as a contractor.
Jayson Davies
As a contractor? As a as a district employee?
Amanda Gibbs
As a contractor.
Jayson Davies
Oh, so you went from being a contractor, kind of doing split between school and clinic, and then you went to being full time contractor for a district.
Amanda Gibbs
Okay, let me back up. So I was a contractor for a recruiting agency, okay, for a school, yeah, and then I worked for the clinic separately, so two different entities, yeah.
Jayson Davies
And then you went full time, just in the school.
Amanda Gibbs
Still as a, as a contractor under, under a recruiting agency.
Jayson Davies
Gotcha Okay, and correct me if I'm wrong, but now you're actually in house with the district, right?
Amanda Gibbs
I am.
Jayson Davies
Okay, cool. So throughout this we're going to kind of talk about both of those experiences, and feel free to kind of chime in if you want to go back and forth between those at any time, because I think it's very different when it comes to talking about buying your own supplies, using the school supplies, district supplies, all of that. Sometimes there's a lot of overlap. Sometimes things are very different. So I kind of want to dive into this, and I'll let you kind of choose which role I'm assuming it'll either be the full time contractor or now as the role you're in now, but when you were just getting into the school district, or as a contractor, again, as a contractor, or in the schools. How did you figure out what you had access to when it came to therapy, supplies, maybe even some evaluations? Was it very easy, like you came into this room and like everything in this room was yours, or did you have to find things? Or what was that experience like?
Amanda Gibbs
That's a great question. So as a contractor, again, it was myself and about four or five other contracted OTs. You know that we got together sometimes, but budget wise, you know, which I found is very different in a, not only a rural versus, you know, urban area I'm in now, but there really was no budget, there was no items, there was no at really for us as a contractor in this rural area. And so I really found I was coming across a lot of barriers of how to even provide access to my students to provide them the tools that they need. So luckily, the recruiting agency I was a part of, they did give us about a $200 stipend for see CEU reimbursement. However, we could use that to buy supplies. So I went ridiculous on that 200 I made the most of that $200 I possibly could, and really use that to my advantage. But again, there was still a lot of barriers with just providing my students with what they needed, rather than, you know, being in a large district where I work for the district and walking into basically a house, and having everything you could imagine, plus being able to have a budget to get anything I need for a student, it makes the world of a difference for our job.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, I'm assuming now, like you really do, just have, maybe your classroom that's dedicated to OT at. One or multiple school sites that just has all the different things, and you can kind of come in, if you're going to another school, grab some things and go to another school. Is that kind of where you're at right now.
Amanda Gibbs
So our district is so large that we have two whole trailers, like housing trailers, that have, it's lined with, you know, wheelchairs and, you know, different tomato chairs and rift ins and stoic chair. I mean, you name it. At equipment ot testing kits. I mean, it's two whole trailers that we have access to. And, you know, there's a lot, quite a few of us, you know, it's about 48 OTs now in our in our district. So, yeah, it's, it's ginormous, but you know, it's it goes to show how much, one we need, and two, we're able to kind of have some flexibility and where we can get the stuff and kind of what we need to help our students.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, wow. You mentioned the $200 stipend, and I experienced that. Well, I think mine was $400 for the contracting company that I was working with at the time. And yeah, I mean, you said you used it very well, and I'm curious to see how you did it. I think my first purchase was an iPad, but I'm curious to see here what yours was.
Amanda Gibbs
So I looked at it like this. I said, Okay, I have $200 where can I, and just, you know, a little background story. I'm, I wouldn't say I'm a cheapskate, but I am frugal. So I have that natural tendency to just make a penny or $1 stretch. So I knew I had a few options, Dollar Tree, goodwill, and I'm also a goodwill member. By the way, if anyone's listening, you can become a goodwill member for free, and you get 75% off of that color of the week. So if I was getting something for $1 and it was the color of the week, I was getting it for 25 cent, wow. And I got so many good I still do. I get so many good finds at Goodwill, even adapted crayons, like the larger egg crayons, so many good, good little finds there.
Jayson Davies
Wow. So there you go. Everyone gotta go make use of that. I mean, I have been there a few times. Usually we're in the back dropping stuff off, but every time I go in there, I'm like, I don't know why I don't come to the goodwill more often. Like, it's amazing what you can find there. So, you know, the dollar store is a good deal, but 25 cents, yeah, you can't beat that in 2024 or beyond. So, yeah, now the $200 so sounds like you went to Goodwill. Made good use of that. Was it enough?
Amanda Gibbs
Kind of, it was it as being someone that was my first year, it set me up, at least with a good toolbox. And it, honestly, it actually helped my creativity, I feel like, because I really had to think about how to best use those tools or items I found. So I was really looking for things that are, one, very compact and small, and I can help travel with me, and two that are versatile, and I can, you know, use it in a million, in one ways. So I was looking at tape. I was looking at stickers. How many I was thinking in my mind as I was just going down the aisles, how many different ways can I use stickers? Or how many different ways can I use tape? I might be able, oh, I can definitely do a gross motor exercise with tape on the wall. Maybe I could also, you know, work on pre writing strokes, looking at putting tape on the table. And then then, you know, maybe we have cars, and then we, we take the cars down the pre writing strokes that we make without the, you know, with the tape. So just really getting creative in that process, I found that I at least got the basics, and I got a few good manipulatives, and I tried to make sure I also was able to get things that touched on each area I needed to support for my students. So definitely, fine motor, gross motor, visual motor, some ADL stuff, but I wanted to make sure I at least had a good starting kit, I guess, and it was sufficient for where I was that first year.
Jayson Davies
Okay, would you say you kind of went in with a shopping list, or was it more of a, I see something, let me figure out how I can use that.
Amanda Gibbs
Hmm, good question, because I didn't want to make an initial list and then be more of a hunt. Whereas I felt like, if I went into the store and saw something, it was more of in the process creating, like, Okay, if I see this, then I can grab it, or I can think of it and how to use it in X amount of ways, rather than, you know, making a list and then maybe it not being there or finding it,
Jayson Davies
yeah, that makes sense. And OTs, you know, you, you brought this up. OT practitioners can be pretty darn creative and resourceful, but I know that there's just sometimes we, we might be going through Target, Goodwill dollar store, and we see something like, Oh, that looks super cool. Mm. And then we might buy it before we actually think how we would use it. Or we might stand there for five minutes and try to figure out the 10 ways that we can use it to determine if it's worth paying the $5 for it or not. So I can imagine Amanda like just standing there kind of thinking like, how many different ways can I use this You mentioned a few things. What would you say were probably the best buys at the time that that, like, you know, some things probably didn't work quite as well as you thought they would, and other things did. What were the things that that were good buys?
Amanda Gibbs
I certainly had my, I think, like rose colored glasses on as a new grad, you know, especially, you know, and we're a part of social media. I have social media. We it's, we get over, I get overwhelmed when I see all this fun stuff in games, and you're kind of excited to just get all of that fun stuff. And I, for certain, was a part of that. And so I think there was one time I got there were these many stacking chairs, and you had to really stack on top. And I thought, Oh, that'd be nice, you know, work on, you know, coordination or visual motor skills. Maybe you had to stack certain colors, if I create a pattern, then they do it. And I'll be honest, once I tried it out myself, I was like, This is so difficult. And I think I tried it maybe one time with the student, and it just, it wasn't their thing, you know. And sometimes I will be the first one to say, I I have wasted a few dollars here and there, and it's like, Hmm, I could have probably spent that on something that was more. Could have been used. And again, you know, tons of different ways, rather than that specific game or, you know, toy.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, you live, you task analysis, task analysis, the activity, and you learn, right? So, yeah, that happens, definitely happens from time to time. All right, so you talked about the $200 stipend. You took that really far. But one question, I don't know if there's a question, but more of a debate that is often seen all over social media is, should school based ot practitioners spend money, their own personal money on tools and whatnot? And so I don't want to kind of go over this in like a presidential debate forum, but from your experience, you know, like, kind of, how has that maybe stayed the same or changed over your years? I mean, how long have you now been within the school based OT? OT realm.
Amanda Gibbs
This is my fourth year as a school based OT, Yep, yeah. So,
Jayson Davies
so in the four years, how has that evolved? Do you did you ever spend money? Do you spend money now? Do you how has it evolved?
Amanda Gibbs
It has certainly evolved, I think, initially as a new grad. And this was me, you know, again, not having as much money, so I was kind of in that phase where I really wanted to stick to that $200 but once I ran out, I kind of did find myself buying stuff here and there, and it's difficult if you don't have a budget in your district and you just don't know what to do or where to find the support you need, or maybe you don't have support. So I found that to be really difficult. And I did find myself buying things here and there, and I think that was a good lesson for me going forward to really understand. Well, if I do need something, who do I contact? How do I advocate for us as a profession, and then who's responsible for the budget? I should probably know that, and I should probably understand where we fit within that. And so it's funny, because going from a contractor to that scenario to now working for a district with a humongous budget, I kind of have everything I need at my fingertips, and I don't find myself buying stuff as much because we have it within the budget to put in an order request, and we we can get it, of course, when we create those order requests, we have to fill out. You know, what is the educational need with for that? And it comes out of the budget. But I don't like to buy stuff myself. I don't encourage anyone to do that. I have definitely found that we need to really advocate, because if we are buying stuff all the time for ourselves, and there we really don't leave a space to have that discussion for us to fit within that budget. I think that's so important. And so if there are any new grads or therapists that are going into the space and you find you don't have much support, then please reach out to where that support is and find out what the budget is and where we fit within that and get that conversation going to really decrease, not only the burden on yourself, but future therapists as well.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, and it's really hard to figure out, like that side of things, it's not a most occupational therapy practitioners, I don't know. We're not the people that think. About money all the time, and so we it's easier to go to Target and buy something than it is to put in a purchase order or to even figure out how to put in that purchase order. But yeah, I mean, whoever your immediate supervisor is, is definitely someone to reach out to, oftentimes, a secretary in the special education department, if that exists. It's definitely someone to reach out to. Any other people that you have found that are kind of key individuals to get to know.
Amanda Gibbs
Certainly the finance specialist, which, you know, depending on the district, they might have different titles, yeah. Or, you know, we have our admin coordinator, so we go to her, and you know, that's who we send the forms to. But you know, special education directors, yeah, yeah.
Jayson Davies
Yeah. And again, like every district does this differently. I've now worked in a few districts, you know, and I've seen kind of the different ways that it works. And kind of interesting now is being on the flip side as the OT school house. I'm also now seeing this from the vendor side, because, you know, a lot of therapists will have their district pay for them to come to a conference or the course that we put on at 32 schoolhouse. And so now I'm seeing it from that side. And oh my goodness, I thought, like it would I thought purchase orders would all be similar for districts. And, oh, gosh, no. So different. Like, so, yeah, it really depends on your district, how they operate. You know, small districts do things very differently from large districts, and you've got to kind of figure that process out. But I know a lot of OTs that have, once they figure that process out, oh my goodness, the practitioners just take it like, once you figure it out, it's so easy to do, and you can start to get a lot of support that way. So definitely figure that out. All right, so you've kind of figured out the system for for purchase orders, put it in request. Where are some of your favorite places to put in requests? I don't think you're putting in requests at the Goodwill. Correct me if I'm wrong, but what are some of the places you like to put in for for order requests.
Amanda Gibbs
So it's interesting. My district specifically prefers Amazon. Wow. So, yeah, I wish I could tell you why, but I think it's because of the fast shipping. And there's just so many, you know, we know I'm not promoting Amazon or anything, but you know, we know we can find anything on there, and so I think that's just their preferred vendor. I do know that people also like to purchase from fun and function. I believe they are called for a lot of tools, so that's one I go to pretty often as well. But I have ordered quite a bit of customized name stamps on Amazon, and I particularly like those, not only for their price, but you really can customize it to the student's name, to how large the print is, to the ink, the contrast of the ink, what color. And so I found that actually for Amazon, that particular item is very resourceful in there.
Jayson Davies
Do you have a post related to that on Instagram?
Amanda Gibbs
I do not. I do not.
Jayson Davies
All right, by time this podcast comes out, I think Amanda's gonna have a post out for you all for that, but just to put it on the spot a little bit. But no, the one, the reason I was gonna kind of bring that up, though, is because with Amazon, and that's interesting, that your district likes it. Maybe, you know, it's been a few years, but I remember my district, like hated Amazon as a vendor, and I think it was because the prices changed so often, and so by time the paper way work went from the OT to up the chain of command, the prices could have changed, which then throws everything off, but maybe things have gotten a little bit more consistent now. But the reason I asked you mostly is because on Amazon, you never know who you're actually buying from, and it's really hard to determine quality. And it sounds like you found a pretty good quality stamp here, and that's why I was interested if you had a post, because it's really hit or miss on Amazon, it's, I mean, you could order the same thing three times and it's coming from a different vendor. Each of the three times, quality is very different, so finding the right vendor within Amazon can sometimes be tricky.
Amanda Gibbs
I completely agree that's actually a great point for anyone that is going through Amazon. Or has I have found that at least the stamps have been consistent, or at least if we know that whoever is selling through Amazon like we're aware of that company, if it's a bigger named company, then that's a safer option. Yeah. But you know, I wish I knew why they preferred them. If you know, given all those things, yeah,
Jayson Davies
if it makes it easier for the teachers, OTs, everyone involved, then I'm all for it. So, yeah, all right, another one. And we briefly touched upon this, but I want to kind of go a little bit deeper into it. Is, how can ot practitioners maybe avoid some of those early mistakes that you talked about, that you might have made where, you know, you kind of bought something, maybe thinking. It would be great, but in hindsight, not so much. Or maybe also investing in something, or buying something that seems really cheap, but at the end of the day, is actually more expensive because we're getting the cheaper version of it and whatnot. So just kind of, I guess, a few tips for those people out there. How can they get the most for their money?
Amanda Gibbs
I think something I wish I would have done looking back, is before I bought some specialized games or toys. You know, rather than the more universal things we can use is usually, and I can't speak for all districts, but I at least get a week before the kids come back to school to at least look through IEPs, or if you have time to just look through their IEPs, look through their interests, look at their goals, and think you can work backwards. So you say, hey, this kid loves cars or dinosaurs. Then if you would like to, and if you don't, you know, it's kind of hard to to find the educational impact of needing dinosaurs. So we kind of have to have a little bit of wiggle room. And you know, you can purchase $1.25 car set at Dollar Tree. So that's the way to look at it, just working your way back and looking at those IEPs, the kids interests, and then kind of, kind of picking and choosing what you think is worth the little extra dollar or two, or, you know, for manipulatives, for in general, picking certain manipulatives that they might find interesting. So that's one thing, rather than, Oh, I love this. I love this, and I love this too. And, but wait, what do the students actually like and what will benefit them, and what skills can can you work on within those games to really feed it back into the academic goals that you're supporting.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, yeah. And the other thing too, I think, is just that there's so many resources online, like, if you're wondering if this toy would be good, the odds are someone else has as well, and that person may be an OT. That person may not be an OT, but the odds are you can either go into some of the different social media groups, some of the social media influencers, and see, hey, have they posted anything about this specific item, or how they might use that item? Maybe go on YouTube and look up the item, especially if it's more of a specialized type of game. And you know, is it really going to promote a fine motor pincer grasp or whatever, like some of those. I can't remember the name of the kid, but he's just, like, famous for unboxing toys on YouTube. And like, I'm sure if you're trying to figure out if a toy will be helpful, you can find that page of that kid unboxing the toy or whatever and figure that out. So, yeah, there's just so many resources online that that you can learn a lot about something before ever hitting the buy button or going to target. So.
Amanda Gibbs
Yeah, and it can be overwhelming, like I mentioned before, just there's an abundance of information, and I just there's an abundance of all these toys I feel like sometimes, so really trying to pick and choose what you feel would be most relevant, not only for one kid, but multiple kids. And then even if you don't have the toy in your hands, you know, kind of at least looking at the description, of course, but just doing a task analysis on it, and not only seeing, you know, the game description of what skills it says it supports, but you know, even if it has like small manipulatives in the game, I a lot of the time never use a game for its intended purpose. I consider myself, you know, the queen of just adapting any type of game. So even if we have Hi ho cheerio, I take those cherries out and use them a million ways for manipulating and putty, or maybe taking the cherries and using tongs to put on the letter i in the correct formation, or, you know, just thinking of it that way too, to really make that game stretch, but adapting it to use Even the little pieces within it.
Jayson Davies
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. OTs, as practitioners, can get very creative with things, but I will also say some of us are very organizational people, and I know for me, I have struggled in the past a little bit with using some toys outside of their specific toy box, because I was afraid that they would never go back to their specific tool. So I will acknowledge that. But yeah, absolutely. I mean, we can get creative and use things outside the box, one of my favorite places, actually, I don't always buy from them, but at least I like to go to them to see what is out there in the world is learning resources, I think, is what the name of the brand is. They always have some really creative stuff. And I just love it. Just gives me ideas, and then I can figure out, okay, well, maybe I don't want this specific learning resource toy, but this other toy at Target, or this other toy that I already had. Have I can basically use in the same way that that one might so, yeah, just breaking down the tasks.
Amanda Gibbs
Or great, great idea. I've also seen some great toys on learning resources where they have the toy, but then I'm like, Hmm, I go digging in my recycling bin, and I'm like, What can I do to make this toy? You know, maybe I need to paint in honestly, I'm not saying every ot has the time or can go that extra mile to me, truthfully, it's just a therapeutic thing that I like to do, and it's just my way of I don't know. It's, I think that's me. That's one of my hobbies. Is just creating stuff anyway, so sometimes I'll go in my recycling bin and I'll get out a shoe box or a cereal box and figure out, what can I do with this and how can I use it in OT?
Jayson Davies
Yeah, yeah. And I just want to give learning resources a shout out, because if you go to their website and then you click on bonus activities, they have a ton of free printables, coloring pages. They have, like at home, learning videos. They've got how to use their tools in different ways. So not an affiliate of learning resources. But definitely check it out, because they have a lot of really cool stuff. So yeah, just wanted to throw that out there. So all right, this is going to come now to the segment where we're going to get a little specific, we're going to talk about specific areas that occupational therapy practitioners commonly address, and talk about a few tools that you really like. Because I know on Instagram you like to post some tools every now and then. So let's just start with the quote, unquote, most obvious fine motor. What are some or feel free to go if you want to make it a little bit more specific to an area of fine motor feel free to but what are some of your favorite tools to have on hand to promote some fine motor skills?
Amanda Gibbs
I will tell you. Since the very first day I became an OT, and this is probably one of the very first things I bought at Dollar Tree are those colorful pom poms. And I cannot, I should, honestly, at this point, create, like, a freebie handout of, like, 100 ways you can use those, but that is one. I use it every week. Kids love it. Kids feed Mr. Munchie, the famous tennis ball with it. We use them to again, use tongs to, you know, maybe make letter formations and then write the letters. So pom poms, those colorful pom poms. I cannot, I could. This could be all about pom poms from now to the end of the case. Let's see. Another thing is dollar tree also has many chalkboards. I will say I also like learning without tears chalkboard a lot, because they have the smiley face on it sit to help with letter formation, but Dollar Tree has them kind of on a stand, and I just break off the stand because it's supposed to be like a frame that sits up, kind of like for writing stuff on, you know, for events and stuff, but.
Jayson Davies
That's just gonna get knocked over with with every kid like.
Amanda Gibbs
So I always get chalk a mini chalk board, pom poms. Those are top three fine motor. This is a hard one, any type of little manipulative that doesn't stick to putty either. So even if it's mark that's key, marbles are kind of large, but I use marble sometimes. There's just so many good ones. And honestly, any type of those little erasers from Target, like the dollar erasers, I you can use it, and especially if it's a fun theme, maybe kids want to again, if it's a type of food, feed Mr. Munchie with those, or we can use those a different ways.
Jayson Davies
All right, the most important question of the day, have you ever bought in a Happy Meal somewhere just to get the toy for therapy?
Amanda Gibbs
You know what? Oh, I was about to say no, because I'm not a fast food eater. However, I used to babysit, and we used to always go to Chick fil A. And inside the Chick fil A kids meal, I was so surprised that they had spotted in there. And they had multiple versions at the time. And so I had that kind of as my first year, instead of buying the actual spot, and I got that one for free. And now, you know, later into the game of being an OT I have the larger, you know, versions of spot it, but that is certainly my best find in a free ish Happy Meal.
Jayson Davies
There you go, all the different versions of spot it. Were they all cows? Were they all, like, different types of cows and chicken nuggets or something
Amanda Gibbs
that would be hilarious. But they were, uh, they were different themes. Like, it was animals, it was it was mainly different types of animals. I think.
Jayson Davies
That's funny. That's funny. I love it. Yeah, no, they're one of the tools that, gosh, I've gotten. So, like, my mom, of course, and my family, like, knows I'm a school based OT and so, like, it's amazing. I order my mom's house, and she has, like, these things, just. Waiting for me to take to use for therapy. And one of them, I think, Albertsons, the grocery store, they were giving away these little like Disney characters, and they were only, like an inch tall, and they had a suction cup on the bottom. I was like, Oh my goodness. So I have a ton of those now, and I use those for everything.
Amanda Gibbs
It is so funny. You say that because I got those basically, except they were Marvel characters. I got them at Goodwill for $1 and I don't know what they're called. I can't find them anywhere else, but I would love more of those. I've used those tons of times again, just using again like letter formations or just that pincer grass. Oh my gosh. Those are great for fine motor skills.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, I mean, they're like, they're like, almost kind of like squigs, yeah, they're really cool. So, yeah, use those all the time, all right, so that was fine motor, and I'm sure there might be some repeats here, but let's talk about visual perception. Visual motor, anything that comes to your mind that you like to have on hand.
Amanda Gibbs
Hmm, a few things that are, again, easy to travel with are the spot it game is one of them. So I'll keep that on me. It's nice and compact. A lot of things that I like to do, too are just, if it's more like copying designs and such, we can use, you know, different tools with that, like popsicle sticks. Put the popsicle sticks in different, you know, shapes, or whatever it might be, and they can copy it on the right side, if I put it, you know, maybe on a whiteboard. And mine's on the left, there's is on the right. Also, I use clothespins a lot, and I might color the ends of the clothespins differently and have, maybe visuals of the different ways we can order those or sequence those, to look at those skills. As far as actual games, I do have scramble, which is a two player, it's two it's a two player scramble, but it's, it's basically, it's perfection, but it's two player, okay? And there's a time component where you kind of so it's nice because it has that processing speed element too. And so I enjoy that one as well. Perfection scramble, I'd say those are my main go tos, but I have so many that I just can't think of at the moment.
Jayson Davies
So hard when you're in the moment, right on the spot, trying to think about it, you know, if you were, if you're with a kid, right? It just comes to you, you're ready to go. But when talking about on a podcast, things take a little bit. They're just not right there, ready to go. But, all right, you mentioned using a dry erase, not a dry erase board, sorry, a chalkboard for handwriting. You also mentioned having some cars on tape, anything else for just a few handwriting ideas that come to mind.
Amanda Gibbs
Again, anything with manipulate I can make anything work I feel like with manipulatives. Or, you know, if we do have a dry erase board and dry erase marker, I always like to do, at least, you know, quite a few repetitions. Of course I feel when we're, you know, working on writing or whatever it might be, so that multi sensory approach. So maybe I also use Play Doh mats, which is nice. So I'll have like, the letters of the Play Doh mat, so we can roll out the putty. And then maybe we can use, like, the magnetic coin chips to go in the formation of the letter and, like, put them in the putty, so more strengthening pincer grass, and then we can work on, you know, writing the letter together. So definitely, those magnetic coin chips are really nice. I use those in a lot of different ways as well. And if you have the magnetic wand to pair, speaking of learning resources, I think they actually have that as well. That's a big go to squigs, as we mentioned, is another big one, especially for larger movements. I feel like some of my kids do better with those larger movements on a vertical surface first, and then we can kind of come back to the table and do more fine motor smaller formations of those letters as well.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, I really like the scratch art we can use, like a wooden pencil right to scratch away the black to get to the color underneath. That was, that's one that I've done a lot. Yeah,
Amanda Gibbs
I've used that a lot, especially for my friends that have difficulty with that pressure of writing. So I found that that can, yeah, those are very helpful with, you know, some of our friends just have a very light pressure. I'm like, I need to press a little harder, and that gives them the input that they need to really understand how hard they have to press.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, yeah, all right, quickly, going through a few more, I broke these two apart, sensory treatment versus sensory more like fidgets, and I don't believe you are sensory integration trained in any format. I don't believe but I'm sure you still address sensory to some degree. And so when it comes to supporting student sensory systems, feel free to kind of go in different directions. You don't have to mention all of them. What are. Few things that you like to have on hand.
Amanda Gibbs
So it definitely depends on the student. It's interest, it's not interesting, I guess. But in our district, we really try to focus on sensory regulation and just how we can support more from a consultative, indirect model. Because we really, and it's more about, you know, carry over with the teachers and that teacher education, because when we're not there, we really want to make sure that they can really integrate those strategies themselves. Or what can we do to to help them kind of go through that process. But what I what I like to have on hand is we have quite a few different, I'd say, more tactile fidgets, you know, the sense a few ones that I have found that I really enjoy are the sensory rings. They're like the metal rings that you put on. And they're very nice, especially if you have older students, like, you know, maybe upper third and up to middle school, high school, they're discrete. They don't make noise, you know, especially if you have a high schooler that really needs that input. I've had high schoolers that kind of find their own stuff that they enjoy. I've had I've had high schoolers, um, even enjoy ripping off the ties of a trash bag and use that as their fidget. Very interesting. Yeah. So those sensory rings are nice, very discreet. Also it's more what do they call calm strips. So you could place those under the desk, or if you have a laptop, I like those for my middle and high schoolers or older students, any student really could benefit. Even I do to put those on your laptop, and it kind of goes with you, wherever you are, even, you know, squishy balls, it really just depends on the student. And honestly, it is more trial and error, and what would benefit the student most and what they prefer. Because I'm sure we have all been through this process where we give a kid a fidget and it's just thrown, and the teacher's like, Ah, they're throwing it. They don't need this, and so going through that process of really finding what is most beneficial, and then what are they really going to use as a tool, rather than a toy? So that conversation as well.
Jayson Davies
Do you have any sort of like, maybe not call them rules, but guidelines that you use to kind of distinguish a fidget, a sensory fidget, versus a toy or something that's going to be more distracting for a student. Do you have any sort of guidelines that you use for that?
Amanda Gibbs
I guess it'd be more of my own personal guidelines, but I really like to observe the kid like one thing I've learned through trial and error, you know, is I can observe a kid with me one on one all day, and then use it, and it would be fine, but soon as maybe they go back to the classroom, it's not fine, and that's when it causes problems. So what I what I like to do, and I know, you know, sometimes we are strapped for time, and not all therapists have the time to do this, but if you if you do have the time, I do like to observe the student. Once I give it to them in the classroom, maybe I push into a session, or it's an indirect session, but I really like to observe how they do with how they use it inside of the classroom, during a lesson, or something that's very academic based to see if it is distracting to them or their peers. And then I can kind of work backwards to decide, okay, maybe this is a little too noisy, or they're kind of focused more on the Fidget rather than their work. And what might be better for that regulation and in focus piece.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, absolutely. And then I think we'll wrap this up with ADLs, any fun things that you found, or helpful things that you found from various places that you just kind of like to have on hand to work on some ADL skills. And of course, you know, there's several ADLs. We don't need to go into all of them, but some of the more common ones that we might address in in school.
Amanda Gibbs
So there's certainly a few. You know, Amazon has those different ADL boards, the button boards, the ones that I like. And I wish I remembered the company, but I found it from Goodwill. I imagine that where it was more of the pillow, and they have the zippers and buckles and the various fasteners on it. Kids seem to really like that one. And how I kind of integrate it more in our session is I might hide like little things within the pillows. And they're kind of like finding something, and then they practice a fastener, oh, find the next fun, manipulative within the pillow. And then they so it doesn't seem so difficult all in one, you know, part. So those are really nice, the more the pillows and what I also like to do is just practice on what they have, also what they wear. Make it fun. Sometimes I might adapt it, of course, to make it easier initially. So I might what I've. Tried in the past actually is tie like a high contrast, like yellow or red pipe cleaner to the zipper. And that seems to help kids a lot on their own jacket, and we can practice that way. What else the pipe cleaner has has really worked wonders, I've found. And then also just again, using their backpack within our sessions, like maybe hiding fun stuff in their backpack and using larger zippers, and then, kind of, as they get more successful with that, and then we can kind of scale down, make it maybe take away the larger zipper, or whatever it might be. But, yeah, hiding some fun stuff in their backpack to get to it, or a toy and then or a ladder, and we, you know, 1,000,001 ways we could, we could integrate that.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. All right, so that was, I don't know if we we calculate like three for each of those, you just gave us like 15 different treatment ideas. So thank you for that. But now let's talk about the wonderful idea of organization and storage, because we all know that every school based occupational therapy practitioner has at least two, I would say, almost at least three different schools to go to. We live out of our car. Our trunk is our most likely disorganized base, but maybe it's organized for some of us. But how do you how do you go about putting this all together? What's your mode of transportation when it comes to putting this all into a toolkit.
Amanda Gibbs
So, you know, it's, you know, it's funny. I did recently get a new car about a year ago, and I specifically chose that car for a large trunk, a tall trunk for hauling all of my work stuff. So I do carry around a rolling cart. I just got that two years ago. It is. It's a luxury. It's nice if you want it. It's not a necessity. But I have found it does help my shoulders by a lot. The only things I come across, of course, is yet you have to consider, if you have, you know, stairs in your school and you don't have elevator access, and that can be the main barrier, of course, but what I have found to work around that is I keep a different bag for each of my schools, and nothing crazy, just even like the $1 sturdy Marshall's bags, or, yeah, you know what I'm Talking about, just the sturdier. So I'll keep those, and I have one for my elementary school and then another for my high school. That's what I currently have this year. So very different populations, I need very different things, and so those bags fit very nicely in my rolling cart. I can just get those right out if I need to for the day, and especially if I'm going to my high school, because, you know, we are in 2024 and just security is very high in my high school, so I have to go through metal detectors, and I have to take all of my stuff out. So I have to pack lightly. And so I recommend for any therapist that if you have multiple schools, just make a separate bag for each of those schools, even if it's just a small pouch of the basics for crayons and a scissor and whatever else, if you have the means to but certainly a different bag for maybe each school that would help out a lot.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, I know I, I always had, like, an over the shoulder bag that I took with me everywhere. Sometimes I would use a backpack. I never did the rolling cart probably, probably should have, but yeah, it's I felt like I was just always switching. I never found like, exactly what I wanted, like one thing that would work. And I did start to do kind of the more for the paperwork. I made a folder for each individual school, at least for the paperwork for each school, because it was just so I mean, now everything's digital, but at the time, things were digital, but still a lot of paper, so I just had a different folder. Plus it's hard to type and work at the same time. You can make little notes handwriting while you're working with a student, so a little bit harder to type, but having different bags to go different places was always a little bit easier, I found so, yeah, but then comes the organization side of that, because if you do have sounds like you have high school versus Elementary, kind of easier to separate those out, but if you have three different elementary schools, maybe you're moving things around from bag to bag a little bit More often, but also maybe you don't necessarily need to have two different bags, because you are using similar tools wherever you go.
Amanda Gibbs
And that's kind of how I did it, because last year I had, I had two elementary schools last year in one high school. So for my elementary schools, and another tip is to make it easier for yourself is to again, stretch that same activity, but adapt it in so many different ways, depending on the kid and the skills you're working on. So I didn't find that it was a hassle. I usually I keep the same bag, but I might, you know, for the week, I might add in some extra papers. I usually keep a folder within my bag that says. Like treatment activities for the week, and I just have it in that folder. So you could have a folder for that elementary bag, or a folder for that high school bag, if you need to put a sticky note for what kids it's for to kind of dissect it a little more that way.
Jayson Davies
Do you use an iPad at all? I do. Okay. Do you ever kind of, I guess. Do you ever pair a digital asset, like something on the iPad with physical tools, other than maybe the the obvious, like stylists?
Amanda Gibbs
Um, are you saying like, do I use certain like, writing apps during myself?
Jayson Davies
More of like, do you ever somehow incorporate physical items, like your pom poms or something like that, almost in in, somehow connected with the iPad? So for instance, for me, one thing that I found was because it's hard to always carry around some like instructions for a game. Or what I would do is I would take a picture, so, like, I might put the pom poms into a design, take a picture of it on my iPad. That way, when I go to the school, instead of having to carry around the papers with designs for the kid to copy, I just, you know, pull up my iPad, go to the picture that I want them to copy, and now I've got it right there.
Amanda Gibbs
You know, yes, you know, it's funny. We actually just got new iPads at my job Friday, and I had pictures because So, for example, I did that with the game don't break the ice, and I put the little blocks into different designs for the kids to copy. So I know exactly what you're saying. I also did that, but I just remembered I lost all of that as a Friday, so I have to recreate all that, but it's okay, yeah, yep, that's also a great idea. Yeah, I did that with, like, don't break the ice. Also, if I'm if I did do a craft, I just put the sample of what I did. Rather than carrying the sample around, I took, I had a picture of the sample, depending on what we did. If it's too complicated, I obviously had the physical piece there.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, I could imagine actually, like, using, even putting the pom poms, like, onto the iPad, potentially, but obviously it wouldn't be interactive in that sense. I don't know if it needs to be, but I could see that kind of being almost using the iPad as a quote, unquote game board for the physical items. But, but, yeah, I just wondering curious minds. So.
Amanda Gibbs
Yeah, that's a great question. I know you know apps. We do use a lot of apps in our district as well. We have quite a few learning apps for letter formations and such. We use and for at as well.
Jayson Davies
And then I know some people, or another way that I know some people use like physical items with the iPad is they use the Osmo, which is something that I've used, and you can actually use like sticks and curves to make the letters with the Osmo, and has this little bear and then jumps up, and it uses the camera and a mirror over the camera to actually see what the student is is doing with it. And so, yeah, that's a fun one. I don't, don't know if you've used that one before.
Amanda Gibbs
I have not. Is that a program you would have to get approved? Like, did your district have to approve that? Or, I'm not familiar.
Jayson Davies
I had them purchase it. The app is actually free, or at least it was at the time. The Osmo app is free, but you need the little tools to actually use the app. So basically, it's a little mirror that goes over the top of the iPad camera, so that way the camera is actually looking down. And it also has a stand for the iPad, so the iPad standing upwards, but the mirror is making the camera look down, so then it can see what you're doing on the table. And so they partnered with Disney, they partnered with a lot of different companies. Yeah, it was cool. They had a letter formation game, and basically it was the Handwriting Without Tears wooden blocks except rubber, and you put the pieces together to make the letter D, and then it would tell you, Oh yeah, your D looks good, or your D O make it a little bit better. Um, so, yeah, pretty cool tool.
Amanda Gibbs
Yeah, I've heard of it, and I've seen kids use it, but I personally have never used it, but that is good to know. I will put that in my back pocket.
Jayson Davies
Yeah, there's actually another one of the games on it. It was always tough for the kids, but I could see some of the older kids, if you're trying to do more of an executive functioning with a little bit of visual perception in there, they had a game where a ball is coming down and you basically have to draw on a whiteboard to create a barrier on the iPad. I know this doesn't sound at all like it's hard to comprehend this, but by drawing on a whiteboard under the iPad, it would create a barrier on the iPad screen that would then make the ball bounce. So, yeah, it's very interactive, like kind of that 4d you know, you're getting the interactive piece with the digital so unique. And I don't know I like it. I think it's really cool. I think it adds an extra. Component that kids really like, so and it's really easy to carry around. If you already carry around an iPad, all you need is the little piece that goes over the iPad, the little stand, and then the manipulative So.
Amanda Gibbs
Right, right. Yeah.
Jayson Davies
Okay, I think we are going to start to wrap up here. We've covered a lot any other tips or tools that you want to share with everyone listening about kind of developing that, that toolbox that they can have with them and take with them,
Amanda Gibbs
I would say definitely, try to keep it low expense. Try to find what's within the budget if you're looking for outside tools, because I know I can't think of everything in my mind all at once all the time. There are other great resources I will shout out tools to grow. I think they have some great tools that I use weekly. And they also just recently came out with a tools to teens portion, which I find is helpful for the high school population. And they have tons of life skills stuff on there that I've been trialing this week, actually, and it went phenomenal. So I'm going to shout out tools to grow if you know, for low prep, or just you know, you're in a funk and you need some extra ideas or tools, they're great. I'd say that was my main that's my main go to but there are others, like ot toolbox, I know, is great, and your therapy, your therapy source, is also great. I find some great visual perceptual worksheets on there. A lot of the time, I have to give a hand to OTs in general. I'm going to be honest, I find that there are so many free resources out there that I have found from so many different people that sometimes I feel there's an abundance of information, which is wonderful, but kind of overwhelming, but yeah, but it's great that we have so many wonderful minds out there making Just resources to help the profession.
Jayson Davies
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And I do have one more final question for you, and that is, I think a lot of people, when we think about a toolbox that we put together, we think about it specifically or more in relationship to a pull out model of therapy. But is it, is it specific to a pull out, or can we also bring our toolbox into the classroom and work in the classroom with kids?
Amanda Gibbs
Absolutely. So I do push in about 50% of my time, especially with my a lot of my self contained classrooms, my preschool population, even at the high school level, I'm pushing in and doing more group lessons with my students. So a lot of time I will have my rolling cart with me, if it's appropriate, but I really do like to just bring the basics of I have my clear little pencil box, and I'll have my highlighters, my different types of pencils and grips and adapted paper, a few different manipulatives, but nothing. One tip that I have found is I definitely do not bring larger, more distracting games into the classroom. I think if you want teachers to not like you, that is a fast way of housing how for them to not like you. So I do keep it simple and just bringing what I need within the session, maybe I have some planned worksheets, small little manipulatives, again, more of those things that we can use across various different populations.
Jayson Davies
Absolutely. Amanda, thank you so much for joining us today, talking about the OT toolbox and how we can start to put that together, find different things from unique places and and just know that we don't have to, you know, spend a fortune. I think, honestly, the 15 different items that you talked about earlier, when we went through fine motor, visual perception, all that fun stuff, you probably maybe combined for a total of, like, $50 I would assume, like that wasn't a lot of money. You gave a lot of different, you know, tools that combined might reach $50 I would assume a lot of that stuff was very low key, very inexpensive and simple to to source. So thank you so much. And before I let you go, I want to give you the opportunity to share a little bit about where people can go to learn more about you and the resources you have.
Amanda Gibbs
Sure, and you know, thank you so much for having me. Jayson, I love talking ot all day long, of course. So if you guys would love to hear my voice even more, you can find me on Instagram at ot enlightenment, or you can head over to my soon to be refurbished, redone website at ot enlightenment.com with new stuff to come very soon, and if you are still kind of just needing more support. As a new school based therapist, I do have myself and another partner. We have school workshops, and it kind of goes over all about the stuff we just talked about, but in a little bit. More detail about how to really address the organization, but in all the different ways we have to organize a school based therapist as well as, what do all those tools mean? What do all those pencil grips mean? How can you use them differently? And so check those out if you find that you need more support in those areas.
Jayson Davies
Absolutely and granted. This was 167 weeks ago. Amanda, so it might not be still $8 but you posted a target Hall eight items for $8 it's probably like eight items for $22 now because of inflation, but those are the types. Some of the things you can find over on ot dot enlightenment. Amanda posts some amazing content every day related to school based occupational therapy. I'm sure she has several posts where you can learn a little bit more about what is in her ot toolbox, and then some. So be sure to check her out over at ot enlightenment, Amanda, it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much for joining us, and we'll definitely have to keep up.
Amanda Gibbs
Thank you Jayson.
Jayson Davies
Well, that's a wrap for today's episode of the OT school house podcast. A huge thank you to Amanda Gibbs for joining us and sharing her valuable insights and resources. Be sure to check out all that Amanda has to share over at ot period enlightenment on Instagram. The link is in the show notes, in case you need it. And again, thank you for allowing me to spend some time with you during your daily happenings, whether you're a seasoned occupational therapist or just starting out as an OT practitioner, I hope you found today's conversation practical for your own practice. If you're looking to dive even deeper into today's topic or just need more support, I'd love to invite you to join the OT school house collaborative. Inside the OT school house collaborative, you can earn certificates of completion for listening to episodes of the OT schoolhouse podcast, get early access to our library of resources and professional development courses, and even access our very popular goal bank for school based ot practitioners, find a wealth of additional resources to aid your journey in school based ot as part of the OT schoolhouse collaborative. It's a fantastic opportunity to reinforce what you've learned and further integrate those tools and strategies into your daily practice. You can even get support from me inside our monthly live collaboration hours. Until next time, keep making a difference in the lives of your students and stay inspired. We'll see you next time on the OT school house podcast.
Amazing Narrator
thank you for listening to the OT school house podcast, for more ways to help you and your students succeed right now, head on over to otschoolhouse.com. Until next time class is dismissed.
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